Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met Chief Ministers of all BJP-ruled states earlier this week and asked them to adopt the GEM portal.

In an order issued on Wednesday, the UP government has said it is shifting to GEM for procuring both goods and services.

NEW DELHI: In a shot in the arm for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government e-Market (GEM) project, the Yogi Adityanath government has passed orders on Wednesday that Uttar Pradesh will also be making all its procurement of goods and services through the central portal.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met Chief Ministers of all BJP-ruled states earlier this week and asked them to adopt the GEM portal to cut down on corruption in government procurements.

In an order issued on Wednesday, the UP government has said it is shifting to GEM for procuring both goods and services. “This is a major step to cut down corruption in government procurements in UP and bring transparency to the huge expenditure made in this regard by the UP government,” a senior UP official told ET.

The state has been infamous for corruption in this regard – with the inquiry report of the UP Chief Secretary in the Gorakhpur child deaths pointing to corruption and commissions being charged even for the procurement of liquid oxygen.

All BJP-ruled states, including Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand are expected to follow suit and enter into GOMs with the Centre and issue orders to come on the central GEM portal, especially after the Prime Minister’s directions to them. Nine states have signed GOMs with the Centre for adopting GEM till date - Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Puducherry, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Manipur and UP. Over 20000 sellers are registered on the GEM portal for selling over 50000 products like laptops, air conditioners, furniture and items of daily use like stationery. Services such as taxis and florists also come under purview of GeM, which was launched last year with aim of making the process more efficient. Procurement by the central and state governments put together is estimated at Rs 5-7 lakh crore each year.